I’m no expert...and although I travel for a living...I have never slept in a Holiday Inn Express...So take this for what it’s worth....

What they now call ADHD/ADD used to be called hyperactive. I’m 46..and I have a brain that normally goes 1,000 mph...been that way my whole life. Doing mundane tasks...I have to force myself to concentrate on the task...or my mind will wonder off for something more exciting or important. I have to make it shut up at night...usually with a double turkey....unless exhausted. The only time my mind will be quiet is when I am probing deep water structure with a bass lure.

I was born that way. Along with a geeked up mind...I am naturally on the hyper side physically. I thank God I was born before the medical community decided to treat kids like me with drugs...instead of the old school way.

It took me one time to look bored and fidgitty in front of my granny...after 3 hours of pruning, weeding, and other forms of love to the azaleas...I never let that happen again. I learned to be productive doing something I liked versus being made to be in something I didn’t. We kids learned quick to make ourselves scarce...laying around the house on a Saturday usually resulted in manual labor. We had woods..ponds..trails..the country store a mile plus away..the church field where we played ball. We found productive outlets for our energy.

Todays kids...for the most part...are surrounded by incentives to remain inside and inactive. Cell phones...Xboxes...internet..and parents that live in places where fear prevents them from encouraging kids to go outside and roam. Our parents feared for us...there were cottonmouths...yellow jacket nests..feral dogs..the rocky river...and our travels took us deep off roads where help would be an hour tops in coming. But they let us go out and see if we could deal with it. Some didn’t. But most did. Most of us having our own .22 rifles by age ten...our parents did not fear any humans harming us.

Todays kids do not have the outlets for their energy we did...nor are such outlets encouraged. As long as little Johnny is stoved up safe in the basement playing Xbox...mommy doesn’t have to worry about trouble with the law or the perv. Mommy doesn’t have to worry about the bully..or the gangstas. It’s just easier that way.

Many kids I grew up with lived on small farms..with pigs to slop...chickens to feed..eggs to gather...rows to hoe..and cows to milk...before school. Then there was calving...rat killings..plucking a dinner chicken...there wasn’t time or energy for ADHD.

Today...with most families being one where both parents work..or a single parent family...there isn’t time for parenting....there isn’t time to sit down with Johnny to figure out a productive way for him to expend energy. There ain’t no chores for him to do..nor is there a group of kids standing at his door ready to spend every possible minute outside.

Little Johnny sits in front of the flat screen playing Medal of Honor with his buds...with a headset and a mountain dew...and a bottle of pills he takes twice a day.